The Council on Southeast Asia Studies presents
Nurfadzilah Yahaya, Assistant Professor of History of Southeast Asia, Yale University: “British Hydrocolonialism in Southeast Asia.”
Across the British Empire, from the Caribbean to Hong Kong, colonial engineers perfected the art of manufacturing new territories from dredged sand and legal precedent, creating landscapes so thoroughly naturalized that their colonial origins disappeared beneath accumulated sediment and bureaucratic authority. In Southeast Asia, this imperial technique confronted an unusual challenge: governing an archipelagic world where traditional territorial boundaries made little sense. Colonial authorities responded through extensive land reclamation projects, mobilizing Asian labor and private capital to systematically transform fluid coastlines into solid ground. From Singapore’s harbors to North Borneo’s shores, these engineering campaigns reshaped both physical landscapes and local communities, imposing European concepts of fixed territory upon regions long accustomed to maritime flexibility.